Truckers Protest High Fuel Prices, Clog NJ Turnpike

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by newguy888 So ziggy you were 9 years old during the last energy crisis, you may have sat in a gasoline line in the back seat . Dude the lines and shortages were stinko. Lets hope we don't have to deal with them again.

I seem to remember the gasoline line problem lasting less than a month, but then again it was the 70's and I may have been confused.

[Wags]

CNN Money article - Gas sets second straight record high

Gas prices set second straight record high, according to AAA - Apr. 4, 2008

GOD BLESS US ALL

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wags MSNBC article - Congress questions Big Oil’s big profits - Executives deflect blame for skyrocketing fuel costs Congress questions Big Oil’s big profits - Oil & energy - MSNBC.com The questioning of big oil by Congress is a couple of days (years) late and few millions if not billions of dollars late.

I saw some of the excerpts on TV and the web. Maybe I need more context, but I don't get it.

Why is Congress asking these questions? Isn't a company *supposed* to make a profit? Geez, people are complaining about a slow economy, then they want to grill companies that are making a profit!

Seems to me that Congress should have been grilling Congress. Why did Congress authorize tax breaks to these oil companies?

And why ask an oil company why they aren't spending more on renewable energy? Can't a business decide where they want to invest? If Mr Congressman thinks that renewable energy is such a great business, maybe he should leave public office and start his own renewable energy firm.

I suspect it was just a show so that politicians could portray themselves as 'white knights' to the voting public. They probably met with the oil lobbyists later at the bar and had a good laugh over the whole thing.

-ERD50

[Wags]

Yahoo.com - Market supplied with enough oil, OPEC official says

Market supplied with enough oil, OPEC official says: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Excerpt from the article

Oil supply to the market is enough and high oil prices are not due to a shortage of crude but rather it is because of the decrease in the dollar's value, shortage of refinery capacity and some political tensions in the world," OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri was quoted as saying by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

End of excerpt.

It appears that OPEC will be of NO help to the U.S. Fuel prices will continue on the upward swing.

GOD BLESS US ALL

[dumpster56]

Bottom line no new refineries here in the states in 30 years sure they expanded the older ones, but most are in hurricane alley so just wait until the weather turns bad. Sorry unlesswe start drilling EVERYPLACE in the states we are well Fu(ked.

Enjoy 5 6 or8 dollar a gallon gasoline and diesel fuel, and 5 dollar a dozen eggs!.

While you go to nascar races and sit in drive through lanes for your sausage bojangles biscuits. Get this today 23 cars waiting in a drive through here in north carolina at a bojangles wth the gas station next door at 3.34 a gallon ! Plus some idiot was actually washing his SUV at the 6 dollar car wash in the rain!

[Wags]

Christian Science Monitor article - High diesel prices squeeze truckers - Independent drivers have been hit especially hard, and some will be forced out of business.

High diesel prices squeeze truckers | csmonitor.com

Excerpts from the article

While all Americans are facing sticker shock at the pump these days, truckers have been hit particularly hard, watching the cost of diesel skyrocket past gasoline. The national average for diesel is hovering just above $4 a gallon, due to high crude-oil prices and rising demand for diesel, especially in China and Europe. Truckers often pay close to $1,000 to fill up a tank that might have cost $600 to fill a few years ago.

Independent truckers – those, like Campbell, who own their own rigs – are the ones being hit the hardest. They make up roughly a third of truckers. With little pricing power or ability to collect fuel surcharges, many of them are accepting hauls that barely allow them to break even or that even lose money. Conditions are bad enough that a week ago, some truckers tried scattered protest attempts – strikes, slow drives to tie up traffic, or drives to state capitols – which largely fizzled due to the unorganized nature of the industry.

End of excerpts.

Things are getting worse for the truckers and some are going broke and losing their rigs.

GOD BLESS US ALL

[haha]

The life of an indpendent trucker has always been very hard. Sounds like it is getting harder to the breaking point. Most of these guys have to keep running even on very slim cash margins, just to pay the note on their rig.

I guess once your cash profit on a run drops below zero you are about ready for bankruptcy. Most of them will find jobs with trucking firms, but lose their rigs and maybe other property as well.

Ha

[Notmuchlonger]

Could be a new era in commerce. Things change. Things get swept under and new things rise. Could just be a stage in the way things work. Feel for the independent truckers sure. However maybe its time we find new fuels...fuel efficiency do things differently. Just because things change doesn't mean things are BAD. Adapt and move on.

[ERD50]

While this is a personal tragedy for some of those small truckers, they seem to be part of the problem. If small truckers make up 1/3rd of the traffic, they have more power than they think. Commerce probably can't get by w/o them. But look at that article:

Quote:

"My way of fighting back is just not hauling the cheap freight," he says. "I won't put a load on my truck anymore that I'm going to lose money on." But negotiating the prices, when there always seem to be drivers willing to do it for less, can be tough.

The article states that sometimes they take a haul at a loss or small profit, in hopes of making it up on another leg. Well, if they keep doing that, they really can't expect the shippers to make a higher offer, can they? Supply/demand.

So they want the government to come in and regulate fuel surcharges? Geez, why not just let the free market take care of this?

-ERD50

edit for WAGS:

YouTube - The Eagles - Already Gone

So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 So they want the government to come in and regulate fuel surcharges? Geez, why not just let the free market take care of this?

I can't remember what you did for a career, but it is unlikely that you were a small businessperson.

This is the free market! it's basic functioning of market power- the shippers are price- makers, the truckers price- takers. When a relative few agents are on one side, and many on the other, power resides in the few.

Ha

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha I can't remember what you did for a career, but it is unlikely that you were a small businessperson. This is the free market! it's basic functioning of market power- the shippers are price- makers, the truckers price- takers. When a relative few agents are on one side, and many on the other, power resides in the few. Ha

True, I worked mostly for mega-corps. But in a way, we are all small businessmen/women - essentially representing and selling ourselves as the product to our employer. I was not a union member, so I didn't have any agents on my side.

The article said that about 1/3 of the traffic was handled by independents. I would think that would give them a fair amount of power, no?

I'll admit, I don't know much about the trucking industry, but aren't there enough different shippers to provide a free market? I had enough potential employers to provide a free market for my services, but of course, supply/demand would impact what I could expect in compensation. Is the trucking industry so different?

-ERD50